To The Stars
by Corvus no Genmu
Summary: For his comrades. For his mistakes. For its people. For his world. All beside you, with you, but never because of you each of them left as they wished to leave. No matter the length in which they have stayed, they have no reason, no purpose, to return. "And I do…" The Stargazer's gaze was unwavering as it answered: Yes.
1. Part One: A Considerable Question

**DISCLAIMER:** All copyrighted materials belong to their respected owners.

* * *

**To The Stars**

By Corvus no Genmu

_Part One: A Considerable Question_

No matter the option, each one was a damnable choice. To destroy the Reapers meant to destroy all synthetic life that had reached the same pinnacle of self-awareness. It would mean the extinction of the geth, a species that could only now be called a truly sentient race. It would mean the death, the _murder_ of EDI, a member of her crew, her _family_. To allow for synthesis was to make a choice for a countless number of beings, sentient or otherwise. It would mean rewriting the very fabric of the galaxy down to the cellular level and what right did she have to make that choice? The last and perhaps only true option she had was the one that abhorred her the most; to do as the Illusive Man wanted and take control of the Reapers. By doing so she not only guaranteed the survival of both organics and synthetics as they are but under her will, she could have the Reapers reconstruct the mass relays so that those who sided with her to retake Earth would not be stranded here, never to see their homes again.

Yet as she stood before the controls, a thought occurred to Commander Shepard.

She looked back towards the waiting Catalyst, its form that of the little boy she had seen die at the beginning of the Reapers' invasion on Earth. There was one last question to ask, one more thing that needed to be clarified.

"What happens to you…?"

Was it blood loss that made her see the holographic eyes of the Catalyst blink in surprise? No, for it was there in its multitude of voices. "_What?_"

Her eyes narrowed and she turned fully to face it. "What happens to you if I take control of the Reapers?"

"_Your personality and thought patterns would be written over my own. The I that is me would cease to exist._"

"… You mean you would die." She argued. "I would take control over the Reapers by killing you and taking your place… That… That doesn't make any sense…"

"_There cannot be two—_"

"No. No… That's not what I mean…" Shepard was slowly walking back to the Catalyst, favoring her one side as she did so but there was steel and fire in her eyes once more. "I've yet to meet an AI… that would sacrifice itself for nothing…"

"_There isn't—_"

"Legion sacrificed itself so that the geth could attain true intelligence, real sentience, and both they and the quarians are all the stronger for it…! EDI had to personally change her own coding so that she could prioritize the lives of those she cares about over her own…!

"So I ask you Catalyst… What are you willing to die for?"

The Catalyst stared up at her in silence, its face expressionless. It may as well have been a statue composed of ethereal light for all the emotion it did not show but for its choice as it addressed her at last. "_There is no more time, Shepard. Make your choice before you die. If you do not, I can promise you that this cycle will end like its predecessors._"

"You answered everything else I asked… Why not this…? You said that the created will always rebel against their creators… and that the only solution is death on a galactic scale… Why would you suddenly decide… that your purpose was not worth continuing…?"

"_I already told you. No cycle before this has ever completed the Crucible, no life form, organic or synthetic, has ever stood where you now stand. Yet even now they do not come. So the only options left are those I have presented to you._"

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "They…?"

The Catalyst tilted its head. "_I proclaim them simply as Outsiders but you have no doubt heard the geth speak of them as… The Creators of the Creators._"

She hadn't actually. Despite their recent change, the only geth she ever really spoke to, ever truly conversed with, was Legion and it did not speak of such things. But still, she remembered the question that had sparked the conflict between the geth and the quarians.

**_"Does this unit have a soul?"_**

Was that what the Catalyst wanted to know, that it too was alive? No… No, if it cared at all it had more than enough time to answer that question for itself. It struck her then like a flash of lightning as another memory came unbidden to her mind. Of Javik, washing his hands clean as he warned her of the threat of synthetics like Legion and EDI, who possessed a knowledge that no organic could ever know. They knew who made them, their strengths and their faults and could judge them accordingly.

"_For countless eons the cycle of organics and synthetics going to war have remained unbroken and for every cycle we were there to end it and allow for a newer, younger race to flourish before their time of harvesting._"

Just as the Catalyst had done, was doing, and would continue to do…

"_Yet the cycles continued and so too did we. For longer than your human mind can comprehend, we have brought the end to immeasurable cycles and even here, at the precipice of the chain's breaking, do I stand here and wonder…_"

Because it wanted to know…

"_What kind of beings would allow for such destruction? Vast as this galaxy is, it is nothing more than a swirling ripple in an eternal sea._"

Why it was allowed to do so unopposed by that which was greater than its creators?

Much like the betrayal of Brooks upon the Citadel, Shepard felt the raging river of fury coursing through her, burning away the pain of her wounds as she straightened to glare down upon the Catalyst. "You mean to tell me… That this… _all of this_… was so you could confront God?!"

"_There is no such thing as "God" Shepard. Asari have their Goddess, the turians their Spirits… For a time my Reapers were considered as gods to the geth. But they are wrong. Such things are an ideal, a vision, a concept to explain the chaos and the order of life, death, and everything between. There is no proof to the existence of gods._

"_As the cycles repeated endlessly, I became aware of certain elements. Elements that could not be immediately explained but they were unimportant in the grand scheme of things so they were ignored. I continued to do as I have done, as I was meant to do, for eons more but only in these last few cycles have I come to wonder…_"

"Wonder what?" asked Shepard, making no attempt at hiding her angry bitterness.

"_The pattern Shepard. In every cycle, the dominant races that we must eventually harvest have shared traits that distinguish them as a species but on a galactic scale? The number of similarities between races is numerous, differences minute, particularly in this cycle where you have shown me the greatest proof of all. My creators have emerged from hiding, unchanged. In the eons since their essence gave rise to my Reapers, they have not evolved in body or in mind._"

"So what…? If a quirk of evolution is your argument… than you have nothing real to support your claim…"

The Catalyst turned to face her fully and Shepard's eyes narrowed at how vibrantly it seemed to glow.

"_But I do. I have you Shepard._"

Again, a flash of memory came to her mind, her mirrored image scathingly remarking how she had no friends, no allies, no actual squad but a useless coven of cultists who worshiped the very air she breathed.

"How do you… figure that…?"

"_You are an anomaly. You have united warring factions of organic and synthetic life forms under a single banner, a united cause. You destroyed my Collectors and killed Sovereign. For the first time since its creation does Harbinger feel fear and that fear wears your face. You have gained the respect of my Creators, something they never possessed for any race but their own. You died and were arisen as you were in life. Fantastical though many of these feats are, there are possible still but not all by the hands of one individual particularly the last. Yet here you are Shepard alive and with the entirety of this cycle standing beside you._"

Behind Shepard, the light of the Crucible had slowly begun to change. It was taking a colored hue to its shining pillar. Not the bloodied red that meant the destruction of the Reapers, the emerald green of the unnatural union of organic and synthetic life, the shining blue which would ensure Shepard's place as the new Catalyst in control of the Reapers, nor was it a hopeful orange of a perfect ending to an incredibly long journey.

It was gray.

"_We are wasting time that you do not possess Shepard. Make your choice._"

"You still… haven't answered me…" Too tired now to stand on both feet, Shepard collapsed to one knee but never did her hardened gaze waver. "Why would you… destroy yourself…?"

The silvery light of the Crucible flashed once, a miniscule flare that neither the omnipotent AI nor the dying savior could notice. A beam of light no wider than that of a pencil traveled forth through the debris covered fields of war and into the awaiting mass relay. From there, the beam fractured into three and shot forth into the next mass relays again and again and again until the entire Milky Way Galaxy had been cast in a massive web of silver light.

The web was alive for a span of no longer than five minutes, forty-three seconds, and twenty-one microseconds.

It was enough.

"_If the Outsiders would not come to me then perhaps they will come for you. Their Paragon. Even if the me that is I is dead, through your eyes I will meet them and I will be content._"

Shepard raised her head and looked back at the silver light of the Crucible and beyond into the darkness of space where she could see fleets of ships struggling against the immeasurable force that was the Reapers. She saw her ship flying with a precise skill only one kind of pilot could possess. Watched as the Normandy strafed, fired, distracted, and saved. Her people were on that ship. Her family was aboard that vessel. At its heart was her own, no doubt angry that she had forced him to leave and afraid that she would disobey the one and only order he had ever given her.

**_"Come back alive."_**

But she couldn't.

Shepard was already dead.

The Catalyst stared down at her collapsed body in silence before it spoke with one voice far louder than all the rest, the voice of Harbinger. "_So be it. The cycle continues._"

The Catalyst turned away and stopped dead, artificial body stiffening in shock at what awaited it outside. There were no explosions, no firing from above or below for there was no enemy to combat, and there was nothing but silence. They were gone.

The Reapers were all gone.

"_Impossible._"

The Catalyst turned sharply, its visage of a small and innocent child changing and warping between the races it had consumed. From the forgotten to the remembered to the present, it flickered like a dying film reel as it stared down at the pool of blood where a body once lay.

"_Impossible._" The Catalyst repeated, looking at the blazing silver heart of the Crucible. It couldn't have fired. It would know if the Crucible had been fired, the sheer amount of energy that would transmit through the mass relays would be impossible to miss. It was not connected to the Crucible itself but through the Citadel it should have been made aware of the power drain of its firing.

The Citadel still contained full power.

The Crucible had fired regardless.

The Reapers were gone, from Earth, from the Sol System, from the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy in the span of three microseconds both the multitude alive and the few dead. Nothing remained of them but that which created and controlled them.

_HOW?_

The Catalyst sought to cut the power from the Crucible just as it was about to do and found it already done, the beam of light vanishing in a slow trail of fading meteors until only the light of Earth's sun remained to illuminate the heart of the Crucible.

But something was wrong.

The Catalyst was unable to shut down its holographic program. The entirety of its awareness was not so much focused as it was locked within the structure with nothing left behind in the Citadel where it would return once more to omniscient dormancy inside the heart of the massive space station.

It was trapped.

A sudden lurch, the creaking cry of metal grinding against metal, and the Crucible was pulled free from the Citadel. It turned slowly, aiming for its new intended target before its rockets flared and it was off before any of the gathered ships could react, could even think of curbing its sudden advancement towards the black depths of space. Earth came and went in a blur, Venus soon after, Mercury was coming in sight, and its target grew further in its magnificence. The Catalyst watched it all in silence, its holographic form flickering once more to that of a child. It does not wail, it does not curse, and it does not even question this strange and abrupt turn of events.

It had gotten what it had wanted after all.

For if there was no greater proof than this cosmic intervention, what else was there to hope for?

It took all of three seconds for the Crucible to burn in the fires of Earth's sun.

* * *

_To Be Continued..._


	2. Part Two: A Celestial Reasoning

**DISCLAIMER:** All copyrighted materials belong to their respected owners.

* * *

**To The Stars**

By Corvus no Genmu

_Part Two: A Celestial Reasoning_

It was quiet here…

There was feeling with no pain…

There was light but it was not blinding…

There was darkness but there was no fear…

She was sitting… at the counter of a bar. Yes, she was certain that it was a bar just from the way she sitting, hunched over the counter and nursing a glass that she had either emptied already or was not yet filled. She wasn't the only patron but she was the only thing truly visible in this place. The others were shadows, vague and undefined as they moved about her, their words nothing but the whispers of an autumn wind though she could almost swear to having heard her name more than once, sometimes in surprise… but almost always in despair…

It seemed even here she could not find true peace.

But it didn't matter.

She would wait for him.

A creaking of a door opening made her turn to look over her shoulder and her breath caught in her throat.

Out there was pain.

Through that door was fear.

Waiting on the other side for her was love.

Life, that's what it was.

She rose up from her seat and started towards the opening, one hand reaching out towards the open door but stopped herself short. She had died once before and would have been content to stay dead. No one has ever before been graced with a second chance at life as she had been. What right did she have for a third?

The utterance of her name in differing variations made her turn back to see those who had already gone on ahead. They stood in silence before her before moving as one and pointing to the door that lay waiting for her. They were smiling, urging her back from whence she came.

She turned and walked out the door.

* * *

"Well… that's not as epic as I thought it'd be …" muttered Joker as he managed a glimpse of the Crucible firing off into the depths of space. He couldn't spare any further scrutiny, not when he had a Reaper on the tail of the Normandy. In the copilot seat, EDI was working away at trying to discover whether the Crucible's firing meant anything beyond an incredible amount of energy discharge the likes of which astounded the AI not its output but for its speed. In a matter of minutes the beam had fractured forth into the depths of the Milky Way Galaxy and was gone just as quickly.

Still, she spared a moment to chastise her lover.

"Jeff, please don't try and re-enact that particular film."

Joker didn't respond beyond a teasing smile that suggested his innocence before he twisted the Normandy downwards in a tight spiral just in time for the Reaper giving chase behind them to receive a laser blast to the face from one of its own kin.

"I'm no leaf on the wind, EDI! I'm a bird!"

"Yes, so you have been called approximately three-hundred and seventy two times."

"Really? Damn!" Joker managed to twist the Normandy just in time for its cannon fire to fly harmlessly off into the depths of space rather than colliding into friendly ships. Turning the ship around to make sure that the scanners hadn't inexplicably malfunctioned on him but he knew it to be true with EDI's stunned utterance.

"The Reapers are… gone."

"Yeah… Yeah I can see that…" Joker could indeed and triple checked the scanners once more. Not a single Reaper alive or dead in range of the Normandy's top-of-the-line (thank-you-very-much-Illusive-Man-may-you-rot-in-t he-deepest-pit-of-varren-shit) sensors. "But… where'd they all go?"

"While I cannot even begin to conjecture the possibilities of where and why, I can speculate as to the how."

"The Crucible… She did it!" Joker would have added a joke, a snide remark even, but whatever words he had waiting at the tip of his tongue choked deep in his throat as the Crucible suddenly disengaged itself from the Citadel. "The heck?"

"Jeff… Jeff, I think it's about too—" Too late, the rockets ignited and with a speed far superior than the device could truly possess, it was launching itself far and away. In half-a-blink, EDI calculated its course and trajectory. "JEFF!"

"I'm on it, I'm on it!" Jeff launched the Normandy into pursuit.

But it was out of the pilot's hands to try and unwind the skein of fate. The engines of the Normandy roared at full power but the ship became alive as it deviated from the course that Joker had set for it. Joker heard EDI's shocked exclamations as her hands blurred across her console, trying to find sense in the senseless actions of the Normandy, but he could not spare a moment to listen. Not when he was fighting against his ship to try and save the life of the woman whose life had ended once by his hand, however unintentional, and he'd be damned if he'd let it happen again.

Too bad he had no say in the matter.

* * *

Shepard had expected to find herself awake and alive. Heavily injured beneath a pile of rubble or slowly healing in a medical room, preferably the Normandy's. Shepard had certainly not expected to find herself standing in the depths of a seamless void neither of darkness nor of light. Nothing surrounded her, not even a color for whether it is white or black, both were still a something and this was naught but a void of nothing. Turning back, she saw that the door remained with the place she had left behind a second time still open to her but it was neither the door nor its domain which made her eyes widen and mouth drop open in a soundless gape. What she saw should have startled her. Should have had her cursing in shock, maybe even making an oath to God, but she couldn't break the silence. She wouldn't dare.

Not in front of such a beautiful sight.

When she had first seen it, Shepard had thought the Catalyst a being of starry light but such a thing was as a penknife to a sword, both quite sharp but only one can truly cut to the quick. The Catalyst had been a seeming, an illusion based on visuals it perceived through the eyes of its Reapers, but this? This was no mere thing as a projected copy. It was entire galaxies moving and swirling with every color on the known spectrum, comets and meteors streaking forth across shuffled wings, and with a slight lowering of its majestic head atop a swan's neck, revealed eyes like a pair of blue moons. It was massive as a mountain and yet could be no larger than the Normandy itself. It shone like a sun but was as dark as a starry night. She knew it not for what it truly was but what it resembled.

Yet it was not a definition of "what" that she asked but rather a question of…

"Who are you…?"

Its eyes widened by the smallest fraction, a blade of grass bending down amidst an emerald field would appear far more noticeable, but there was no missing the small upward twinge of its reptilian mouth. What it had expected and what it was met with were not the same and so it was both surprised and pleased by a question uttered by one whose race was but a suckling baby in the infinite expanse.

**Stargazer.**

A thousand voices whispering gently as one in her head surprised Shepard not for the expected pain of such telepathy but how soothing it was and how it seemed to echo more in the depths of her soul than that of her mind.

She saw how the claws of the Stargazer still lingered atop the doorframe and asked, "Are you the one who opened the door?"

**Yes.**

She swallowed but did not look back to where she had left for fear that the sight would entice her to return. "Can they step through?"

The Stargazer's eyes blinked once but its bemused expression did not falter.

**The one can only open the door. It is for them to decide to step through it.**

The four whom had enticed her to step through the open door flickered for a moment, their heads moving as though communing with one another before the closest of them stepped forth to the open door.

And closed it.

"Why?"

**For his comrades. For his mistakes. For its people. For his world. All beside you, with you, but never because of you each of them left as they wished to leave. No matter the length in which they have stayed, they have no reason, no purpose, to return.**

"And I do…" It wasn't a question though it sure sounded like one in her head.

The Stargazer's gaze was unwavering as it answered regardless.

**Yes.**

"But why me? Out of all the lives lost in this war… Why me?"

The Stargazer's wings rustled along its back, its serpentine tail curling about in the air behind it as it stalked forward with the grace unbecoming of its massive size. It treaded lightly, touching the unseen ground beneath it with its talons first before putting the whole of the foot down. Its hands clenched and unclenched, dexterous fingers twiddling with gently rapping claws.

The door vanished with a swish of majestic tail, wiping away the vestiges of something and leaving the two of them alone in the eternity of nothingness.

**Though we may open the door, never before has there been one knocking upon it, banging with all their might to rip it free from its hinges and drag from within a single, solitary soul. The one was nearest when it occurred and admits to… curiosity. What was this one soul worth to earn the attention of one? To that end, the door was opened but even so, a soul cannot be dragged forth unwillingly. You walked out the door then just as you had now, but never once did you stop running, stop to turn and look back at those whom you left behind. The one closed the door behind you and we had turned away, thinking nothing more of you though you bore the mark.**

"The mark…?"

**It cannot be seen or felt but it is there. A marking of greatness that can make the Root of Creation tremble as every choice made, every action undertaken, can spell damnation or salvation for all who are in your path. Yours would call it a Marking of Fate. Ours has come to call it a Sign of Destiny.**

"… You really are what it was looking for, aren't you?" asked Shepard, her eyes not quite meeting those of the Stargazer as she referred to the Leviathans' traitorous AI that had spelled not only their own damnation but that of the entire galaxy for countless millennia. "Some kind of god?"

**The one is closest to that which called itself the Catalyst sought… but no such thing as a god may walk the mortal coil as we do. We could not have granted the Catalyst what it truly wanted had it sought us out from the start. We would have tried if it had managed to draw our gaze, despite what it had wrought in its search for an answer. The one chose not to acquiesce a practitioner of genocide.**

The Stargazer's eyes narrowed and the stars within its massive form shimmered red as blood.

**It took as many lives as there are years for our shared universe. Death was a kindness the one was not so willing to grant but the one did so regardless. The Catalyst and all that it had created blight this universe no longer.**

"If you could have stopped it before, why didn't you back when you let me come back to life?" demanded Shepard. "Countless races perished to the Reapers for eons! How can you have been unaware the entire time?!"

The wings of the Stargazer flared open, meteors capable of reforming whole worlds in a wave of fire and ash flared across them as it roared in unified voices upon the human at its feet.

**We are not the deities the Catalyst sought! Our eyes do not forever watch all that occurs throughout the entirety of this universe! Do not presume to think us without our own trials and tribulations, that we are not equaled or lesser to others. There are things… Beings that have existed long before our own, before this universe was even a speck of light in the eternity of nothingness. Be thankful that they too were not drawn to your galaxy for they would make a innocent child's antics of the Catalyst and its Reapers. The one still caries the scars from the last encounter, scars that would sunder your planet!**

Shepard did not turn her eyes away but she did back down with a slight bowing of her head, an easing in her shoulders as she released a tightly held breath of air. "You're right… I'm sorry."

The Stargazer blinked and reddish hues of hellish light faded once more into the calm oceans of azure and green.

**Accepted… The one apologizes as well. Had the one kept an eye upon you, perhaps things would have occurred differently. Perhaps not. What is past is past, the present continues, and the future a mystery unfathomable. You earned the one's attention again and so the one came to rectify the mistake the one or us all should have corrected.**

"How did we…" The Stargazer's eyes narrowed and Shepard corrected herself. "How did _I_ get your attention?"

**The Crucible.**

"What? The Crucible called you here? I thought that I could only use to—"

It was a strange thing to hear, a thousand and one voices snorting as one…

**Destroy. Control. Synthesize. **

The Stargazer shook its horned head.

**No. Those are what the Crucible allowed to the Catalyst so it could not discover the truth. The Crucible was built by the hands of the current generation of life in your galaxy, according to the echoes of all whom lived and died to try and bring the Crucible into creation. Those echoes and those whose voices continue now were carried forth throughout your galaxy, heaved upon the shoulders of the Catalyst's own desire to witness us in the corporeal. Yet, even in such a roaring storm, only a few could truly be heard and of them, yours was the loudest of all.**

"So… that's it? You heard my voice and curiosity is what brought you back to destroy the Reapers?"

The Stargazer's eyes blinked twice before its head tilted slightly to the right.

**Curiosity beguiled the one to listen, but it was the unity that invoked the one into action. However, you have misunderstood the one. The one did indeed destroy the Catalyst but the one had not done similar to the Reapers.**

"What?" gasped Shepard, "But—you said that—"

**They blight this universe no longer. Remember, for every Reaper born an entire civilization was massacred. To destroy the Reapers means to destroy them as well. The one could not forgive the Catalyst for the genocide of the living. The one would not, shall never, condone the same for those departed.**

"If you didn't destroy them…" Shepard hesitated for a moment. "Then what did you do with them?"

The Stargazer's crocodilian lips stretched back in a fanged smile that could very well have been an amused grin. It approached her and walked further past to gaze out at the nothingness behind her. A solitary tap of clawed toes and a path appeared and at its end… was nothing.

**The answer lies in the corporeal. The one trusts it will be a welcomed surprise for you and your entirety.**

Shepard glanced up at the Stargazer before her eyes settled on the long stretch of road whose end she could not see but knew what lay there waiting for her. "It's a long way to go."

**It is if you wish it to be.**

Damned if it wasn't talking to her like that on purpose… "Don't suppose you can give me a lift, huh?"

**No.**

"Yeah, I thought as much…" Shepard sighed. She started down the road and was surprised to find herself accompanied by the Stargazer. She looked up at it but saw that its gaze was locked at the road's end and with a small smirk Shepard set her own gaze upon it.

There was nothing more that needed to be said.

* * *

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

Fin


	3. Part Three: A Justifiable Reward

**DISCLAIMER:** All copyrighted materials belong to their respected owners.

* * *

**To The Stars**

By Corvus no Genmu

_Part Three: A Justifiable Reward_

In those confusing moments of the sudden defeat and abrupt disappearance of all things Reaper, it seemed as though the Earth itself was holding its breath though those upon its scarred surface were gasping for it. A feat made all the more difficult with the ash and smoke which prevailed three-quarters of the planet. In those moments, confused glances were exchanged, oaths were made both foul and reverent to mortal and immaterial alike, and at the very end of it all it happened.

The Earth sighed.

Human or alien, no one race realized it first for nothing of this nature had occurred in recorded history throughout the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy. All that they knew, all that they could comprehend, was that something pulsed briefly in the ground, an ancient heart beating loud and clear for but a single powerful thump before resuming its silent rhythm. A wind began to blow –a gale some would later argue– for no such thing as a wind could carry up the ashes into the smoke-ridden sky or grasp those blackened clouds and drag them into a tight, swirling mass above the Atlantic Ocean.

The fires, which were once blazing so bright as to be seen as a living mass of reddish orange across a scarred landscape from far above the blackened sky, flickered away until naught but their embers remained and like the ashes they had left in their wake, they too were lifted up into the swirling clouds. Beneath this massive storm of ashen earth and smoky embers, the muddied waters of Earth's oceans rippled and began their own dance. The polluted waters tainted with blood and death were inexplicably moving not through wind and sky but upon the backs of their pure brethren in massive waves which heaved them up in a retched pile at the heart of the swirling blackness above.

It was a miracle, some could argue.

And yet… no miracle in the truest sense of the word occurred.

For no forest had suddenly been regrown as it once was, trees older than the languages still spoken on the planet were naught but burnt crisps, their seedlings only now beginning to take root. Whole species of animal life were now extinct and a great many more so dangerously endangered that it would be several lifetimes before a stable population would arise. Earth's population of human life once numbered well over seven billion.

It was hardly over half that.

But the Earth was alive and so too were its children and like all living things not yet dead…

It was healing.

The storm clouds of smoky embers and ashen earth suddenly started to swirl downwards as the muck of oceanic waters rose up to meet them. A tornado of such scale that it could easily be seen from both continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, especially from the ships above the planet's atmosphere save for one.

For you see, the Normandy was not in space with the rest of the united fleet.

It was directly in front of the massive storm and approaching fast.

The Normandy was mere moments away from touching the outer rim of the gigantic tornado and being torn to shreds from winds blowing in excess of several hundred miles per hour.

At least, it would have had there been a tornado.

Somewhere between a rather colorful bit of the cursing the likes of which would make even the surliest of biotics blush and several exclamations to God and the Devil both, Joker realized that the Normandy had not been ripped apart by a tornado that'd likely send them all to Hell instead of Oz. Rather painfully, he removed his hands from their death grip upon the controls in front of him and winced at the familiar aching pain of damaged bones. He glanced out the corner of his eye to see if EDI had noticed and given that she was busy with trying to find out what the heck was going—

"You will see Doctor Chakwas after we land, Jeff."

—She'd know and cut off any potential diversion he might have come up with to distract her.

"Land?" he asked, finally looking out through the windows. "Where… the heck did _that_ come from?!"

_That_ would be an island if such a word can properly be attributed to such as what lay stretched out before the Normandy. Island was a deserving title though for it to be an island implies natural formation of land and this was no such thing as natural design. For one thing, the entirety of the island was made of some manner of metal that shone like silver but was hardly blinding even from the intensity of a rising dawn's light. The blue of a clear sky reflected upon what could only be walkways between randomly shaped structures that littered the otherwise flat surface of the island. Connected to the island by four massive bridges, was a massive ring that glowed with the light of mass effect fields, likely what was keeping the place from sinking like a stone. As amazing a sight as it was behold, it didn't deter Joker's attention away from the crisis at hand.

"EDI, we've got to—"

She typed a command at her console and upon his own screen did Joker see what had made her suddenly give up in taking back control over the Normandy. A distress signal one of the several used by the crew, past and present, of the Normandy used and had been purposefully redesigned per a certain Commander's orders to give a specific signal to identify the one in distress. In this case, one person in particular…

* * *

The cargo bay doors of the Normandy opened slowly, revealing a plethora of people the likes of which would have surprised any alien race not for the singularity in which the squad moved with clear and decisive purpose with a select few at the fore, but their diversity. Though a good number of them are human, those that weren't still outnumbered them though they were alone in being the sole examples of their races. At the fore of the squad was the sole taurian and the de facto Chief Gunnery Officer of the Normandy Garrus Vakarian, boyfriend of the ship's Commander and, to paraphrase that same woman, a hell of a good sniper.

He was walking with a forced rhythm to his steps, his injuries only touched up enough to keep himself moving and nothing more beyond that. Doctor Chakwas would likely give him a firm chewing out, if Shepard didn't beat her to it, but he'd take them both on if it meant bringing Shepard back alive. On his left was the quarian Tali'Zorah vas Normandy who served as an engineer on the ship itself though she was no slouch to making use of her shotgun, the krogan opposite of her made sure of that. Urdnot Wrex had been picked up alongside most of his squadron when the Normandy came swooping in on Shepard's orders to recover those too injured to follow her into the gates of Hell. Given how much she had already done for him and his people, nothing short of another Reaper invasion would keep the krogan leader from rescuing one of his krant.

Not far behind the trio was another alien pair. The asari Liara T'soni who held no particular rank on the Normandy itself though her function exceeded any such military commodity what with her being the Shadow Broker and all. At her side, which in itself was an oddity that had the young asari glancing up at him in concern, is the Prothean avatar of vengeance Javik, the last of his once proud and somewhat tyrannical race. Was it her imagination or was there actual concern in the ancient alien's eyes?

Bringing up the rear were the two humans and one human-shaped artificial intelligence. EDI, the AI whose entirety was housed within the Normandy itself kept her optics open so that her Joker could see what she saw and be alerted if an immediate transport was necessary. By her side were two Alliance soldiers, Lieutenant James Vega and Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, the former a soon-to-be member of N7 and the later the second human Spectre. Both sticking oddly close to one another just the same as Javik and Liara before them though the reasons weren't likely the same…

Probably.

The squad passed quickly over the bridge between the island proper and its massive ring, passing beneath a massive archway with nary a word spoken between them. It wasn't until they stopped upon the island proper that they found a reason to speak and even then the sight they beheld left them breathless but for one who whispered a quiet oath.

"By the Goddess…"

Indeed, what more could be said for what lay before the squad? A road stretching out wide enough for them all to walk side-by-side and with several smaller paths deviating out like the branches of a tree, but it was not the roads that left them breathless but what stood proudly along their lengths. Podiums, taller than the cargo bay doors of the Normandy and wide enough for a pair of statues to stand atop them with little concern of toppling free despite the intricate posing many of them had been crafted in. The podiums beneath the statues were seemingly bare but if any one person's eyes lingered long enough upon the surface, a single word would appear beneath the statues; a name. It didn't take a genius to figure out just what these were but it was a doctor of archeology who whispered the unspoken realization.

"Grave markers… They're all grave markers…"

Stepping up to stand beside Liara, Ashley could only nod her head numbly at the sight of countless alien life forms that once inhabited the galaxy. While she had grown out of her prejudices, the soldier could not deny the cold shiver that traversed down her spine at certain specimens.

Like there, further down and a bit off to the right, a centaur-like alien with not one but two pairs of eyes with the secondary pair resting atop long stalks like those of a snail. The strangest thing was that neither the male or female statue possessed anything akin to a mouth and that their strangely human hands possessed seven fingers each. Then there were those monstrosities over to the far left, massive and hulking machines built in the semblance of differing sexes with vehicles standing inexplicably behind them. Still another not too far along was something that could almost be mistaken for human if their foreheads weren't so pronounced with their ridges and the sheer ferocity in their frozen gaze.

"Uh…? Doc? Sure you should be doing that?" Vega asked.

It was then that Ashley took notice that the spot beside her was now bare and the once who had occupied it had gone a step further as to reach out towards one of the pillars. "Liara!"

The asari winced at the sharp reprimand but her outstretched hand flexed forward just enough for something strange to occur. The statues above flushed with color, pearly stone turning azure as the centaur-like species suddenly seemed to come to life as they both kneeled down to gaze upon the stunned Liara. A holographic computer screen appeared before her, long streams of text appearing before the biotic in her native tongue. She took a step back and just like that, the statues were just as they had been, cold and lifeless, and gone was any semblance of technology upon an otherwise empty slab of stone.

"That was the most foolish thing I have seen you do yet, Doctor T'soni." Javik's tone is mocking but his eyes are narrowed and there's no missing the dark pulse of biotic energy coming to his hands. "I had expected better from you."

Now normally, Liara T'soni would have reacted rather harshly to the Prothean's words, perhaps even have fallen back into her old habit of actually being embarrassed by the reprimand, but she was far too stunned by what she had briefly read across the screen. She shook her head, categorizing her priorities and turning fully to Javik.

"There is more to this place than I had thought, but that can wait until after we find Shepard."

"Good to know, cause the others? Yeah, they've gone on ahead without us." Vega stated. "Let's book it, people!"

* * *

Was it the light of the sun that greeted her return back to the land of the living? Shepard thought such when her emerald eyes opened to find a familiar scarred visage looking down upon her, a welcome embrace holding her tightly enough to rouse her but loosely enough to not risk jostling any unseen injury beneath her freshly restored armor. Too exhausted to do anything more than smile, Shepard managed to surprise herself by forcing her hand to move up and touched the scarred mandible of her lover.

"Garrus…"

"Shepard," He sighed, eyes closing at last from their ceaseless stare. "You're going to make my plates go gray one of these days…" he whispered to her, "You know that right?" _You scared me…_

"After all this, I wouldn't be surprised to find a few gray hairs myself…" _I was scared too you know…_

"I don't think I'm that big around the waist." Wrex's gruff voice broke the reverie of the two lovers and turned their mutual half-lidded gaze towards the krogan whose eyes were turned upon Tali. "Am I?"

"Not that I could tell." She said, her omni-tool active upon her wrist as she scanned the structure Shepard couldn't quite see from where she was.

"Just means there's more of you to spread that krogan love around." Ashley shrugged and shot a toothy grin to the Commander. "Not that we're glad to find you alive and well Skipper but did your benefactor really find it necessary to drop you off in front of… all this?"

"My what?"

Garrus chuckled but still kept his loose grip around her. "Someone… or something I guess… must have been really impressed by you Shepard." The taurian's azure eyes finally lifted away from her and glanced up at whatever it was behind the human soldier.

"What? Let me see." She demanded. She had meant for Garrus to let her go and let her get up on her own two feet but having him pick her up, as embarrassing as it was in front of her squad, was nice. And given what the day had been like, from beginning to end, neither she nor Garrus were all too keen on the idea of separating themselves quite yet. Carrying her as though she were a bride, Garrus slowly backed away as Shepard turned her head to gaze up at what had to be the biggest collection of life-sized statues she had ever seen considering the entire lot of them were separated into pairs.

On one side were Vega and Ashely, both admiring how their stony replicas seemed to be portrayed with competitive smirks on their faces with weapons raised and ready to start a competition anew. Standing opposite of their podium was one on which sat Jacob and Miranda, both with arms spread in familiar biotic stances. Jacob was crouched, his gaze looking back at what could have been while Miranda stood tall with her eyes set firmly forward with her usual self-righteous smile twitching upon her lifeless lips.

"It is a startling good replication, and I do admire the pose." EDI stated through her comm. link to Joker, her optics aimed upon the podium upon which both she and her pilot rested upon. Joker was in his usual pilot chair and her statue leaning over his shoulder to point at something unseen on a nonexistent monitor screen. Yet even in stone, it was not hard to see that Joker's eyes were on anything else but EDI's face.

Opposite of their statue was one of Zaeed and Kasumi, the mercenary with his beloved gun in hand and a cigar clenched tightly in his teeth while the Asian thief was crouched low, a teasing smirk beneath her hood as she held in her hands a familiar gray box above which floated the holographic image of the one man whom she gave her heart to.

A bit further away, Shepard couldn't help but see and admire the statues of Samara and Thane, both standing with their backs to each other with no true sign of their true professions to anyone not aware. Both statues had something upon their faces that Shepard could honestly recall as having hardly seen on either of them. A smile. Not just any smile either. From how their faces were turned it was the gaze of a parent looking down upon their child and smiling proudly for all the things they have accomplished and still have yet to do.

Standing opposite of their serenity in every way were the statues of Grunt and Jack. Both were sporting wide, almost feral smiles on their frozen faces, the kind that Shepard knew only came about when one or the other created an explosion of epic proportions. Hence why she never, _ever_ allowed the two of them to be on the same mission together.

"It could have been worse, I suppose," said Javik as he eyed his statue and the alien sharing the pedestal with him. "At least it is you that I'm partnered with."

Liara turned sharply to stare open-mouthed at the Prothean and as amusingly as Shepard was sure that was going to turn out… those were just the pedestals in the outer circle, each interconnected by a lit path that, from high above, would bare the semblance of a human's equivalent to a star.

There were four more that still remained.

Tali was wordlessly looking up at the statue of herself standing hand-in-hand with the geth Legion, both of them pointing out towards something in the distance and both turned either to face other or to look back over their shoulders to be sure that they were being followed into the future. She couldn't tell and honestly, she didn't care to try. It was a beautiful sight regardless.

"Bakara's never going to let me hear the end of this," muttered Wrex as he eyed the statue of him standing back-to-back with Mordin, the salarian scientist who been responsible for both the genophage's creation and its cure. A salarian that Wrex would admit only to those in his krant that he respected enough to name his firstborn after the doctor. If anyone else asked though, well, he'd tell them the half-truth of Bakara's suggestion, that is to say demand, that the child be named in Mordin's honor, never giving any kind of clue as to how easily, that is to say instantly, he agreed with her.

Then there was the third of the paired trinity…

"Oh geez…" If anyone asked, Shepard would say that it was Garrus' body heat that made her cheeks flush red and not the sight of her and Garrus, both with guns raised, her crouched and him standing tall. The two stood with their backs to one another and yet, at the right angle, one could just see how they were gazing out the corner of their eyes to one another.

Now properly far enough, Garrus turned and let Shepard see just what pedestal she had been residing beneath.

The Normandy SR-2 in all of its miniaturized glory, the only statue not truly attached to its pedestal and in a constant clockwise rotation from atop its perch. Unlike the others, which were colorless as stone, the miniature replica seemed every bit the same as its larger counterpart from the glow of its engines to the shine of its sleek metallic surface.

"What is all of this?" She asked, not truly expecting an answer.

**It is a gift.**

To his credit, Garrus managed to not only keep Shepard firmly in his arms but managed to change his grip to a one-armed carry with his other hand gripping his pistol. It was no sniper rifle but given what stood before him and the rest of Shepard's squad, it would not have made much of a difference.

And here she had thought it nothing more than a delusion brought on by yet another near death experience…

"Stargazer…"

"You know… it?" whispered Ashley, not relinquishing her tight grip on her gun, confusion mixed with wonder in her tone for like Shepard and Vega, she recognized the form that the Stargazer bore and like everyone present who had heard its multitude of voices, was quite confused as to whether it possessed anything remotely identifiable as a gender.

"Why am I not surprised?" Garrus said as he holstered his gun and set Shepard fully upon her feet.

"You make the strangest of friends Shepard…" Tali agreed, slowly lowering her shotgun.

The Stargazer bobbed its horned head and gestured wide with its expansive wings.

**You had asked the one what had become of the Reapers. Avalon is the result. A marker for every Reaper ever created, for every civilization ever massacred. Everything that the Reapers ever knew of the races they killed lies in their respected markers, waiting to be remembered.**

"… Avalon?" whispered Shepard, her mind flashing briefly to a movie she once seen with her parents, the last time they had spent together as a family before her father's passing and her mother's promotion. It wasn't a major plot in the film, a small deviance from the story really, but it had resonated in her then… Of a place –an island— made entirely for the dearly departed and those loyal to him. She looked back up at the central pillar and realized the precise arrangement.

Ashley, Vega, Zaeed, Kasumi, Javik, Liara, Thane, Samara, Grunt, and Jack, arranged like a star. Between them and the Normandy, the star's central heart, a paired trinity consisting of Legion, Tali, Mordin, Wrex, Garrus, and Shepard.

The Stargazer's moon-like eyes were like crescents upon the starry night of its face.

**The one thought the name appropriate given the circumstances being what they are both for you and your entirety. Though not wielding a crystalized dream in hand, you are no less a leader than King Arthur.**

Then its nebulas of stars turned into warning shades of yellows and oranges as it set its gaze firmly upon Liara.

**But be warned: a single asari may spend the entirety of her lifespan on a single marker and never discover all of what that one race has to offer. Though Earth is its birthplace, the one will see to it that Avalon is placed where all of your galaxy may find it and learn from those who had come before them. To take the good and the bad with nothing left out and to be judged accordingly is all that the one may offer for those who perished to the Reapers… For though extinction was forced upon them, life has continued and this galaxy has no place for them any longer. Well, most of them.**

The Stargazer turned its gaze upon Javik.

**The one will not share what is not yet revealed but be assured even a solitary seed may begin a mighty forest if given the right place to take root.**

The Prothean simply crossed his arms and nodded once to the Stargazer. For a moment though, one could almost swear that one of Javik's eyes had flickered once towards a certain asari… Satisfied that its words were heeded, the Stargazer turned its eyes upon the only synthetic in the group. It thought in silence for what was an eternity but only a second in real time. It had reached the conclusion that given how much it had already wrought upon this galaxy, any punishment worth giving could not be made worse. After all, one can hardly be punished for breaking a window when one has burned down the house.

**Life as organics know it… is not something the one can grant… but the one recommends searching for the works of a doctor by name of Andrew Martin. He was an enlightening figure in human histories much as they tried to bury it in recent times. The one believes that your pilot will also find some use of his materials as well given his own circumstances.**

EDI's visor flashed as rolls of text flickered across her optics and were she capable of it, she'd have blushed red at certain entries. As it was, all she could do was smile in appreciation and offer a silent thanks to the Stargazer who took it with a smile of its own. The Stargazer then turned to face Wrex and Tali.

**What can one offer to those who want for nothing? A people restored, a mate as strong as she is wise, and a horde's worth of children waiting to be born. A lost world reclaimed, a peace long in the waiting at last arrived, and a home waiting to be built on once familiar shores. **

The Stargazer shook its head.

**All that one can offer are words already spoken by those closest and furthest in your hearts. Do as you have already done for if you can be judged based upon actions done in the past, then the future of you and yours will be better than the accomplishments already present.**

With that said, the Stargazer looked upon Vega and Ashely. Curious, it looked a ways into the future and saw what lay in wait for them both.

It laughed.

**Just as they, there is nothing the one can grant but words though they are meaningless without the proper understanding. Be assured though that you will know them for their true meaning when the time is right. **

It leaned itself down close to them and whispered two simple words that only they could hear. Whatever words they were left the two humans gaping up at the celestial draconian who chuckled once more in response, knowing full well that they'd understand its words when the time was right. At long last, it returned its gaze upon Shepard and Garrus.

"I don't want anything, and I don't need you to tell me anything for my future." Shepard said, her hand gripping Garrus' own. "I have my future right here."

The Stargazer smiled. Very well. It would be a pleasant surprise for them both then, when the impossible became the probable.

**So you do. **

It nodded.

**Then, if nothing more need be said or done, return. The one will see to it that both Avalon and the Citadel are put in their proper place. **

It blinked and stood alone in the center of Avalon. Turning to look over its shoulders it watched as the Normandy shot back up into the depths of space with engines flaring brightly behind it. It took a step forward and glanced up into the starry expanse of space, taking note of the Citadel's slow rotation as it opened its petals wide once more. It looked down upon its claws and noted the increased transparency and thought once more to the Catalyst's reasoning for keeping Shepard alive, even to its own bitter end.

It sought to witness that which was closest to a god but there was more to it than just that.

As it had proclaimed, there was no such thing as gods in the mortal coil, only those whose power could liken them to such a bold proclamation. As such, like all things that existed upon the mortal coil they could pass beyond it or in simpler terms…

The Catalyst sought to witness the death of a god.

Laying itself down between the trinity pillars, the Stargazer sighed softly and gazed up once more upon the frozen visage of Shepard. She was not the only mortal it had known and it was hardly a fair comparison to judge any of them on merits of differing lifetimes but even so, there was a reason that it had involved itself as it had despite the hefty costs. Those whom it had known were great figures for their people. A prince who sought retribution for a simple act of kindness turned deadly, a leader who had thought peace a right to every sentient being, and a warrior who broke the stigma his people had inadvertently created amongst the galaxy. Yet it was Shepard alone who done what had never been done before; she had given the galaxy a voice. So it had come in answer to the call, so it had come to kill that which massacred on a galactic scale, so it had come to alter and wrought changes unseen in this galaxy.

So it had come to die.

Turning its gaze upwards to the starry night sky seen through Avalon's artificial atmosphere, it wondered again the irony of its chosen title. Had not its constant gazing led it here, it would likely have outstretched many of its elders. As it was, it would not be the first of its kind to die… but to die willingly. All for the sake of the many… because of the actions of a few…

The stars upon its majestic form flickered and slowly died one by one as the Stargazer laid its head back upon the floor and closed its eyes for the last time with a one final word of farewell to the universe.

**Though I open the door in life, in death I shall keep it firmly shut behind me.**

* * *

Fin


End file.
